Dumas based the life and character of d'Artagnan on the 17th-century captain of musketeers Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan, and Dumas's portrayal was indebted to the semi-fictionalized memoirs of d'Artagnan written 27 years after the hero's death by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (published in 1700).